A war of words has erupted between Uganda People’s Defence Forces spokesperson Brigadier Felix Kulayigye and Uganda Police over a case involving suspected rapist in Wakiso District.
In a statement this evening, the police says “Our attention has been drawn to a video clip from NTV circulating on social media emanating from a program that aired on the night of 14/04/2022 hosting Brigadier General Felix Kulaigye where he noted several concerns of insecurity in Wakiso municipality.”
“Brig Kulaigye further mentions a particular case where a mother, house help and daughters were allegedly attacked and raped at their home in Wakiso,” reads part of the statement.
The police however says that the police team at Wakiso has never registered any incident where all victims of the robbery were raped.
“If there is any incident of rape that happened during a robbery and the victims did not report, they should reach out to our Gender Based Violence desk at Wakiso or CID headquarters,” Deputy KMP Spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire noted.
However, the police confirmed another incident Kulayigye mentioned of a robbery, though Owoyesigyire says his facts were distorted.
“He alleges that a suspect was brought to Police and the Officer in-charge refused to book him and released him. These allegations are false. It is true that the local community working with a UPDF officer brought in a suspect on 12/04/2022 who had been injured by an angry mob. The suspect was later identified as Seviri Rogers 27 years, a resident of Ssala Village, Wakiso town council. It is alleged that on the 27th of March, Seviri broke into the house of Ndooli Christopher and stole money amounting to 700,000 Ugandan shillings. When he was brought to the station, the DPC decided that the suspect be given first aid before being put in Police custody as he had been severely beaten. However, the locals protested the decision. It should be noted that all our territorial Police stations are advised against detaining suspects who are in worrying medical conditions. The DPC later ordered the officers to take the suspect to Bulamu Health Care (Wakiso health centre IV) where he received treatment and was later brought back into Police custody,” Owoyesigyire said.
He added that the file will be forwarded to the Resident State Attorney on Tuesday for Perusal and advice while the suspect remains in our custody. We do encourage criticism of our officers but this should be backed up with facts.
“We appeal to residents of Wakiso Municipality to always liaise with the local Police in order to report any officer that neglects duty and if that fails the Regional Police is always available to intervene at Kampala Metropolitan North,” he advised.